#KQI_SCI_Log

[theadventurerslog]

King’s Quest I: Quest for the Crown (SCI remake) | Part 1

The Adventurer's Log

Release Date: 1990

I started The Adventurer's Log in late November 2022 and I thought what better way to kick off my first year anniversary celebrations for the month than with revisiting the first game I did for it, but in its remade form?

The first three King's Quests were made in AGI - Adventure Game Interpreter. King's Quest 1 was remade in SCI - Sierra Creative Interpreter. Besides the graphical overhaul there are some other differences in puzzles and locations as well, and I thought it'd be fun to take a jaunt through it and do some compare and contrast.

Right off the bat there's a big difference in separating out the conversation with King Edward into an introduction you can view separately from the main menu before actually starting the game.

I viewed that first and King Edward told me about the needed magic items to restore Daventry back to its former glory: the magic mirror that foretells the futures, a magical shield that protects the bearer from mortal harm, and a chest that contains a never-ending supply of gold.

For your bravery and purity of heart, you are hereby voluntold, Sir Graham. If Graham succeeds he'll inherit the crown and become the new ruler of Daventry.

Then it was back to the main menu to start the game proper where it dumps you at the main gate ready to set off for adventure.

However, because this is King's Quest, I had to throw him in the moat first. There's different death music and different death messages between the games. This remake is a lot sassier, although the original game's music is more of a jerk.

The original's game death with the sombre turning to absolute taunting music.

And here is the new death and music.

As it turns out, one of the songs. While doing this I discovered there are a few different songs used.

Also look at the serpents! They're so sassy! Hat-stealing shit-eating grin. The gators in the original are good don't get me wrong, but these serpents are the best.

With that death out of the way I set off to adventure! And more death by rocks!

You still have to push the rock from the correct side or you get crushed and meet 'a crushing defeat'.

Pushing it from the correct side enables you to survive and reveals a hole with a dagger in it which you can get. Then I carried on...

To a big tree! You can climb the tree and the initial climb is handled automatically which is nice but once at the top you have to cross over the branch to a bird nest with an egg in it. I fell.

I fell a lot. Thankfully, this is the rare place that doesn't kill you. Graham just needs a moment to be stunned and get up.

After several tries I made it and got the egg which is actually a golden egg. And delicious delicious points.

I continued my explorations, though I still have the map I drew from the original game, so I've been using that. I nearly had a fatal run-in with a sorcerer and an ogre, but I got away.

I ended up at a riverbank where I was able to scoop some pebbles.

And it's a lovely little spot.

I found another place with a hollowed out stump that contained a pouch of diamonds. Then some more exploring, fetching a carrot from a garden along the way, and enjoying the game's prettiness compared to the original. It's not quite up to KQ IV, but I think it's nice.

Then I met a troll over one of the bridges and kept talking to him to no avail but it's fun bugging him.

Not much to do with him yet unless you want to miss out on points by giving him treasure like the diamonds, so I carried on elsewhere and found my way to where a magic bowl of endless stew is.

Continuing on, I ran into a little elf and if you talk to him he appreciates your friendliness and gives you a ring of invisibility.

That'll be useful for later.

I then found the woodcutter's cabin. The interior is quite different in this version.

In the original, the woodcutter and his wife sit at their table. There's a gaping hole in the corner that you can fall in and die and I think the fiddle was near the hole. The wife in this version is in poorer shape being bed-ridden, but the place itself lacks the deadliness of the original.

You can go snooping in their cupboard but the games tells you: "If there was something of value in there, the woodcutter and his wife would not be starving to death." Valid point, game, thanks.

I had to give him the bowl of stew, but I tried eating it first.

The game won't let you be so inconsiderate.

Once you give them the stew, he starts feeding his wife and lets you take the fiddle in thanks.

Back to exploration! I found and took some clover. Then I ran into a fairy godmother who granted me a temporary spell of protection. For a short while it'll protect you from the various random encounters: ogre, sorcerer, thieving dwarf, and the witch in her home.

It didn't end up helping me out at all before it wore out, though you may be able to find her again. Luck of the draw and all.

I had it when I went next to the witch's cottage though. Now, this place is another big change from the original and a vast improvement. It's a whole gingerbread house! With, um, gingerbread children.

It's random as to whether the witch is home or not. If you knock you may get nothing or you may have her come out. The first time it was empty, so I wandered in.

Now there's a proper fairy tale evil witch's home with a cauldron and everything. If you go to my post for the original game you can see it's a pretty boring house with an oven instead of a cauldron.

I got some swiss cheese from the cupboard and picked up the note by the bed that talks about going backward (for the Rumpelstiltskin solution). She wasn't showing up though and my protection spell wore out.

I left and tried knocking again and this time she was home. I entered and was caught! She decided Graham would make for a good dessert.

Or good decor...

Graham the gingerbread man, or perhaps graham cracker was added to the pathway with the gingerbread children. This is kind of horrifying actually. His screaming face! Horror games, stand aside.

Also despite knowing all this I managed to startle myself when leaving the house because the door is loud! And I was waiting for the witch at any moment.

Naturally, I'd saved right before all this. You can just leave, but you get points for defeating her. You have to wait around inside for her to show up and hide in the room behind the wall so she doesn't see you. She was just not coming my first try, so I tried leaving and entering again and then she came quickly. I was able to shove her into her cauldron and the wicked witch was defeated.

I, however, didn't last long as I soon ran into an ogre I didn't escape from and got killed...

Tussle tussle in the cartoon smoke cloud.

Deaddidy dead. "You were warned ogre and ogre again..." the game is sassier and I'm so glad to have some good death contextual messages.

I found a tree under which were some walnuts, so I scooped one up. You can try eating one but it tells you it'd be too hard and had better be opened first. Opening it reveals solid gold inside. And so it's inedible. I did try eating it again because you just gotta try these things. Finding the gold insides gives points anyway!

I needed to deal with that troll on the bridge so it was time to get the goat. Though I first stopped by one of the lake spots and drowned for another death just to see it. Nothing too exciting there though.

So, with the goat I showed him the carrot--didn't let him eat it this time like I did in my original playthrough--and got him to follow me.

He's a cute goat. I couldn't talk to him though because "Silly! Goats can't talk!" No! I just lack ways to understand. Future King's Quests would allow it...

Anyhoo, I led the goat back to one of the two bridges the troll shows up on. According to the game:

"It is a well known fact that goats hate trolls intensely. You move aside and let the goat take care of this wretched, nasty troll."

The goat shoved the troll into the river taking care of that business. Then it wandered off. I hope to more carrots it can actually eat! Give this goat carrots and joy.

Beyond the bridge is a gnome. He had something that would be of great use to Graham but only if his riddle was answered in three guesses. What is his name? I assume that plus the spinner's wheel and straw around him are both meant to be clues for the name, Rumpelstiltskin. Then the witch's note lets you know to do it backwards if you make the connection. And in this version it really is just backwards, no backward alphabet cipher thing here. Nice and simple. He gave me magic beans and you get more points for doing it on the first guess.

I tried eating the magic beans because science!

"The magic beans tingle as they go down. Now, why did you do that?"

Of course I reloaded. Not only does eating the beans lose you points but I believe causes a dead-end as you need the beans to progress, or the key you get from the gnome if you don't get the riddle right. And since he's gone now, that's no beans or key. Don't eat your magic beans, kids.

Those beans will need to get planted, but first I made my way to a well.

You can ride the bucket down the well.

The way Graham hunches in the bucket makes him look sulky.

Once you're in the water you can dive down and swim.

There was a chest at the bottom that's only there to taunt you. You will drown if you take too long.

I swam up to the other side then realized I forgot the bucket that would be needed. I went back and thankfully you are able to climb back into the bucket. At the top of the well, while riding in the bucket, you have to use the dagger to cut the rope. Then Graham and the bucket plummet down and you can scoop the bucket before diving back down. Back on the other side I was able to fill the bucket.

And so next time we push deeper into the well... And start getting these treasures!

Points: 90/158 Deaths: 5

[theadventurerslog]

King’s Quest I: Quest for the Crown (SCI remake) | Part 2

The Adventurer's Log

Time to get the three treasures of Daventry! I started this session in the well.

First I tried goofing around with my inventory though. I found out if you eat the cheese you lose points. The carrot is safe to eat however. The egg is too hard to crack and there's nothing inside except more gold. Trying to eat other things gave a message: "The thought of eating that would make braver knights lose their appetites!"

Then I got back to business after reloading for those lost points and continued into the well to come face to face with the dragon guarding the mirror.

You can deal with the dragon by killing it with a thrown dragon but you don't get as many points. I also got too close to get myself killed.

Made an ash of myself.

I also remembered you can duck. I played around with that to get silly pictures. His face is funny.

The best solution to deal with the dragon is not ducking or throwing deadly daggers at it, but to throw water from the bucket at the it. Then it can do nothing but make clouds of steam and it slinks off in a shamed sulk.

Once everything cleared up I grabbed the mirror. Treasure one attained!

The dragon pushed aside a boulder that opened the way further into the cave and what seemed like a way out. I was sure I remembered this leading back outside, but I couldn't find the route. So, I ended up going back to the well rope and climbing it to escape.

Then I decided to tackle the dreaded beanstalk next. I found the place to plant the magic beans. The beanstalk burst into being.

Time to start climbing... It takes you up the first screen automatically, which is nice, but then it's up to you which is not so nice...

If you read my posts for the original game you may recall my screaming at this beanstalk. I fell many times. Then I remembered that in this version you can use the mouse to click and move like a standard point and click and that made it a lot easier. It doesn't have the same level of pathfinding later games have but still hugely helpful.

I forgot to keep track at first, so I estimated my first few deaths. By the end of this climb, I died to the beanstalk roughly 14 times, possibly, likely even, more. So, not as bad as my first playthrough, but it would have been real rough if I had kept trying with keys.

The beanstalk led to the Land of the Clouds where a giant is rumoured to have lived. I may have fallen off this land a couple times too...

I found a slingshot in a hole in a tree. And that is an option to use against the giant, but not the best option.

I got myself squished by the giant before doing anything, however.

"The giant did a smashing job of defeating you."

Then I tackled this problem with the ring of invisibility. You can use the slingshot and pebbles but the ring gets you more points. The giant gets tired after a bit and then goes for a nap, leaving the chest on the ground next to him and free for the grabbing.

I grabbed the chest and that was treasure 2!

There are two ways down: the beanstalk or a cave that leads to stairs. I took the stairs. In the original version they're just a long staircase heading straight down, nothing weird. You use them again in KQ3. For some reason despite showing up in 3 again they decided to change them here and they're like half stair, half bridge or platform I guess? But winding! And easy to fall off.

There's three screens of stuff like this. I resorted to the mouse again which, like the beanstalk, made it considerably easier, but I still managed to fall a few times. I also, on the first screen, had the damn thieving dwarf appear! And he steals stuff which causes you to lose points! I reloaded and tried the invisibility ring but it ended up wearing out really quickly by this point. Thankfully the dwarf didn't appear again. I didn't know that could even happen in there.

Outside, I started wandering around trying to find the condor that takes you to the area where you can find the shield. Along the way I got killed by a wolf and twice more by the ogre. I also got stolen from again by the dwarf.

After all that I finally found the place where the condor shows up but it took a few tries and leaving and coming back to actually get the jump right to grab hold of him.

The condor takes you to an island where there's a hole to drop down but also a white mushroom to find. Once I got the mushroom I dropped down.

Another screen or two away you run into a giant rat guarding the door. He'll attack if you get too close, but you can give him the cheese to get him to leave.

Things got a bit rough here. Beyond the door two leprechaun guards come. If you have the four leaf clover they'll leave you alone out of respect and fear.

However, to get more points you need to use the fiddle to get them to dance and they'll merrily teleport away. I don't know what the cause was, but once all that happened, the fiddle animation got stuck and wouldn't end. I couldn't access menus or do anything--same thing happened in Discworld. I'm guessing it's related to something in ScummVM, the emulator I use to play these old games. I tried reloading a few times, but it kept happening. So, I updated ScummVM and that worked. I was able to press onto the main hall.

Now in the main hall the leprechauns are all supposed to be dancing to the music as well before poofing away. They did in time poof away, but there was no dance animation, so they were all just frozen in place until vanishing. The only exception was the king. He did his usual dance down the carpet then sauntered off.

So, that wasn't ideal. Maybe there are other settings to fix things. Maybe the game is best played in DOSBox? But I have very little experience with DOSBox. At least I made it through and I got the shield.

There's a little hole that leads out of the cave and eating the white mushroom shrinks you so you can get through it and out to the main map. It was time to go home!

Except I realized I forgot to try nibbling on the witch's gingerbread house and you get a couple points for doing that too, so I stopped by to do that on my way.

Nibble nibble.

Then I went home to the castle where everyone had vanished.

Look at that fancy angle! And I'm being genuine; that's not a normal view in this game.

Everyone had gathered in the throne room because the king is dying. A doctor was there saying his melancholy had grown too much for his heart to bear. If only Sir Graham had returned with the three lost treasures. Then Graham arrives and presents the treasures.

Sadly, while King Edward is grateful, it's too late and he dies, but the crown is passed onto Graham.

The King is dead. Long live the King! And so Sir Graham becomes King Graham.

It's nice there's an actual crowd here. In the original the throne room was empty.

I'm going to quote the final words from the game:

And thus ended Sir Graham's great quest for the lost treasures of Daventry. Despite the loss of their beloved King Edward, the people of Daventry grew happy and prosperous and flourished for years to come. And whenever King Graham looked into his magic mirror, he saw visions of adventures yet to come...for him, for his children and for Daventry, the land he loved so much.

The End.

Unfortunately, despite my efforts, I still ended up two points short of the maximum. You get two points for finding the route out in the dragon cave. I reloaded an old save to see if I could at least find it. I did. Two points are indeed earned. At least I know what I missed. And I did better than last time! I checked and got 154 points then. Maybe one day I'll get max points in this game.

Deaths: 17 Beanstalk deaths: 14 Total Deaths: 31 Points: 156/158 (158 in my heart)

--

Final Thoughts

Ignoring the leprechaun issues, which was probably more of an issue with ScummVM, I really like this version of the game. Of course it looks nicer, but there's also more charm and character to it. There's the gingerbread house for the witch of course. But there's also just far more death messages that are funny and more in line with the later games. Areas are a little more filled out and yeah, just more.

It also makes some some things a little easier. You don't have to type swim to swim. The Rumpelstiltskin puzzle is easier. When you type the game pauses. The option for point and click controls makes the trickier parts to navigate like the stairs and beanstalk easier. I think it's a little bit more of a friendlier experience. A little bit. Of course there are plenty of ways to die and you can soft block yourself but you know, that's early King's Quest.

Aside from stairs or stair-like frustrations, at least when you know roughly what you're doing enough to avoid getting yourself stuck anyway, there is just something comfy about King's Quest. I thought it before when I went through the 7 games and I felt it again going through this one. And in future this is the version I'd rather play.